Great families, difficult organization to work for - Family Advocate Mary House Employee Review

The founders are incredible, dedicated people that have devoted their lives to the service of others. Working at Mary House gives you the chance to make a real difference in people's lives. They also are open to you bringing in your own ideas and expertise to enrich their after-school program. The location is great, right next to the Metro's red line and the housing good.

Because it's a small team running the organization, you need to be ready to step into many roles. As the founders have been doing this for many years, there can occasionally be an assumption that you already will know how to do something. Ask questions and you'll be fine!

I was an AmeriCorps volunteer a few years back, I'm not sure how/if the position has changed, but this position gave me lots of experience in case management. I was given much more responsibility than is normal for an AmeriCorps position (this is good and bad). The clients are all great and you can make real connections with these families.

Not enough training, I often felt "in over my head" helping clients deal with certain issues. Advice from supervisor was at times contradictory and unclear. Sometimes I felt like I was made to do things that were not in the best interest of clients. Issues with the housing provided by Mary House were common, but often not much was done, or it would take weeks to fix a simple problem. There were some practices that seemed unethical (such as the director's adult children living in houses owned by the non-profit). The director would "play favorites" with families, cutting some families slack while being overly strict with others, leading to an environment where families were afraid to bring up issues because they were afraid to get on the director's bad side. This was very frustrating, and I often felt like I was forced to defend the director's decision that I didn't agree with or think was fair. Overall, it was a frustrating experience at an unprofessional (and possibly unethical) organization.